Righty, in Dec. 2007 I bought a Nokia N73, which worked in its promised entirety for about 2 months, before the slider over the camera broke, so I couldn't use the camera, but no big deal, I just left it. I'm not a big camera user anyway. About 6 months later, it started just turning off randomly, so I gave my provider (Virgin Mobile) a call after it was doing it literally 5 or 6 times an hour and told them what had happened, and they replaced the phone, no questions asked as apparently according to them the camera issue had happened to more than a few people (At the time of the call, It was the day the warranty ended so I got it just in time!) I had a new phone by the end of the week (This was the 20th of Dec '08).

My replacement phone worked up until the start of this week (Sunday night-ish), the joystick on it just stopped working. It hadn't been dropped, sat on etc or anything. I could move it around and move the selector on the screen, I just couldn't select anything unless I really pushed the joystick in. It'd also started doing the whole "Random turning off" trick again.

Today, I asked my dad to give them a call (my account is technically under his name so it's just easier for him to deal with it, saves passing the phone back and to), he spoke to the Virgin Mobile call centre out in India, explaining the problem, how old the phone was and all the needed info. They couldn't get hold of the finance dept. to see if they would replace my phone at that time so they said they'd call my dad back, and sure enough, about an hour later, they did.

They said that they would not replace my phone, because it was a replacement, it's still technically the same phone I paid for back in '07 (and I had it replaced at the very end of the warranty period), and because I didn't physically pay for the replacement phone, It didn't have a warranty and therefore wasn't eligible for a replacement. They said because money wasn't traded for the phone, I didn't pay for a warranty so I wasn't covered for faults in any way. Just to add, Nokia include a 24 month guaranteed replacement with their phones if they can't fix it. They left my dad on hold for 20 minutes in a hope he'd hang up and leave them alone as well, which is somewhat shoddy service considering we've been with them since 1995 for phone, TV, 8 mobiles and internet service...

Is this legal, or are they correct? I'd think even if it was a replacement it'd have a guarantee.

Quoting Gordonsmall (Reply 1):
Generally, in the UK, any product provided under guarantee will only be covered until the end of the 'original' guarantee.

So therefore technically your 'new' phone was out of warranty before you even recieved it.

I didn't know that.

Wouldn't they have to honour the 24 month Nokia one though? Considering they're a authorised reseller for them, and have been for years. I don't know of any other way to get the phone repaired other than through Virgin.

Quoting Gordonsmall (Reply 1):So therefore technically your 'new' phone was out of warranty before you even recieved it.

Funny. I went thru 4 of the same phone before I gave up and bought one out of contract, and according to Verizon each phone they replaced carried its own warranty thus I was covered. Im not sure if thats law, or just something verizon does. But interesting that Virgin wont even cut you some sort of slack. Sounds like you got stuck with a crap model. Id personally call back and try and get a supervisor.

The N73 sucks. When I had one a couple of years back, after two phones (the original and its replacement) kept developing stupid habits including constant freezing and uncommanded restarts, I insisted on a different model from Orange, my provider. They were initially resistant, trying to maintain that I had to have the same model. However, several other people I knew had problems with the model, and Orange admitted to me that it was generally problematic. I insisted and insisted and eventually they caved in and I have had Sony Ericssons every since and been very happy with them.

Quoting Cadet57 (Reply 3):But interesting that Virgin wont even cut you some sort of slack. Sounds like you got stuck with a crap model. Id personally call back and try and get a supervisor.

This guy WAS a supervisor....! Looks like I'm stuck with having to buy a new phone either way, but just to make sure I'm going to give them a call back tomorrow at a different time so I get a different shift and hopefully somebody else less rude than the previous supervisor (not the fact he wouldn't replace it, the fact he was being an ass on the phone about it).

Idk if they have any non-india call centers, but id ask to transfer to one. I've found the non indian ones to be MUCH more helpful. Such as when my Pay Pal account was compromised, the indian "support" agent was concerned that all my cards were removed right before I called until I spent 5 minutes explaining how I canceled them. The next day I called back, got someone in the US and the help was like night and day.

Virgin must be looking to shed some customers right now. I had a query with my Virgin credit card last week. I'm not a "picky" customer, but after the conversation I had with one of their "supervisors" over it, I told her in the nicest of manners, if it couldn't be resolved, I would be happy to settle the account and close it, to which the reply was basically "ok". So I did.

And my cousin has had similar experiences with Virgin TV.

Incidentally, for those in the UK that don't already know of it, look up an alternative telephone to those 084x and 087x numbers where you have to pick up the bill at the following site. For most UK companies, you'll find either a 0800 or 01 number that are mostly free on todays calling plans.

Quoting Ajd1992 (Reply 8):But either way, I shall be changing operators, and to spite them, I'll take my number too!

Your phone number does not belong to you, it belongs to the operator, and therefore it is up to them whether they transfer the number or not. They more than likely will, because numbers dont actually transfer, but instead forward, and the issuing company recieves a portion of the call charge. So if your number was issued by Virgin, and you transfer it to O2, virgin will still recieve a fee every time you recieve a call. So if you want to 'spite them', you want to take out a new number.

Quoting Sean377 (Reply 10):Incidentally, for those in the UK that don't already know of it, look up an alternative telephone to those 084x and 087x numbers where you have to pick up the bill at the following site. For most UK companies, you'll find either a 0800 or 01 number that are mostly free on todays calling plans.

Normally you are ultimately covered under EU law which clearly stipulates that all electrical appliances (like your cell-phone) has an automatic 2 year warranty on it no matter what the contract says.
The only exception is when the phone is bought by a company and not a private person, in that case the contract determines the warranty.

Also, keep in mind they may give you another phone which is basically a repaired model that belonged to somebody else before.

I find it very intesting that UK consumer law is very weak when compared to some other countries in the EC and especially as to the USA and Canada. But even here in the USA, there are serious flaws when it comes to mobile/cell phone services.
I will be switching to Virgin Mobile USA pay-as-you-go next week from AT&T monthly contract. Since I typicaly use my phone 60 mins. or less a month, I hope to save about half on my cell phone bill. I do see on the website for Virgin Mobile USA, they have message boards for each avaiable or recently available phone models where one can research if a phone is a problem one or not. They (and other companies here in the USA) offer some rebuilt/remanufactured models usually at savings but may have shorter warranties. They also offer 30 day trials of phones so one can exhchange the same model for no additional charge or get a different phone with the difference in price if you don't like it or realize you need a different one.